NEW DELHI: The Mumbai police arrested four people on 15 May after busting a piracy racket by a film theatre in Gujarat, which was selling pirated DVDs of Tashan (Yash Raj film's latest production).

The police raided Shivam theatre at Bilimora in Navsari district of Gujarat and have seized substantial incriminating material, according to information received here.

Yash Raj Films (YRF) last week discovered a pirated DVD copy in the market, and upon analysing it found the security arrows and watermarks, which are put in by UFO Moviez during digitalisation.

YRF raised their concern and UFO in turn quickly found out that the camera print had been generated at Shivam Theatre on 25 April at 2:30 am (few hours before the first show) by placing a high-end camera in front of the screen in an empty cinema hall.

The pirates were unaware of the fact that UFO technology inserts a watermark slate during the playback of the movie, the company source says. This watermark is unique for each theatre and for each movie. Hence once that watermark is found in any pirated copy, UFO technology can detect the date, time and location of the act.

Once that watermark was found in the pirated content, UFO Moviez promptly lodged a formal complaint to the enforcement branch of Mumbai police with proper documentation.

The police involved the Central Forensic Lab at Kalina and attested the findings of UFO. Then, based on the report by the lab, a special team led by inspector Gadekar was dispatched to Bilimora on the evening of 15 May.

Gadekar and his men raided the theatre, and the residence of the manager and the owner, and arrested the culprit Vikram Patel.

Rakesh Maria of UFO Moviez said, "The piracy market in India is worth Rs 20 billion, and it deprives the government of crores of rupees of entertainment tax. According to a report commissioned by USIBC (United States India Business Council) to Ernst & Young, 800,000 people across the world lose their legitimate livelihood every year."

"Mumbai being the epicentre of the Indian film industry the State Home department has put piracy on top of its agenda and recently extended stringent provisions of Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous Activities Act to piracy, which is awaiting the Centre's approval." added Maria.

DCP (Enforcement) Sanjay Mohite supervised the overall investigation in this matter.